Kuwait sentences murderers of Filipina maid to death

MENA

Published: 2018-04-01 13:29

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 23:56


Demafelis' friends and family while waiting for her body to arrive from Kuwait in February. (ArabNews)
Demafelis' friends and family while waiting for her body to arrive from Kuwait in February. (ArabNews)

The Kuwaiti Criminal Court convicted on Sunday a Lebanese-Syrian couple in absentia for the murder of their Filipina maid.

Nader Issam Assaf and his wife, Mona Hassoun, fled Kuwait in 2016 after committing their crime. They were arrested in February 2018 following an Interpol manhunt in Damascus. However, Syrian authorities handed the husband over to Lebanese authorities, while his Syrian wife remained in custody in Damascus.

According to AFP, an anonymous source said that the sentence can still be appealed if the couple returns to Kuwait.

The body of Joanna Demafelis, 29, was found hidden inside a freezer on 6 February, 2018. The couple had killed their maid and hid her body in their freezer for a year and a half before she was discovered.

Demafelis’ murder triggered a diplomatic crisis between the Philippines and Kuwait, as Manila ordered all its citizens working in Kuwait to leave the country, raising concerns about living conditions of domestic workers in the Gulf state and other countries.